To keep toxic materials out of landfills and incinerators, the City Council is proposing a new law mandating the recycling of electronic products. It requires manufacturers of such products as cell phones, computers and CD players to set up free and accessible recycling centers for their products.

Although the bill is expected to be passed by the council, the Bloomberg Administration has shown concern about the burden it would place on those manufacturers. And the bill was first introduced in mid 2006.

So in case things take a while, and you really like the idea, there are some options in the mean time:

The federal Environmental Protection Agency recently announced a recycling partnership with many cell phone manufacturers and major electronics retailers AT&T, Best Buy and Office Depot. Users can drop off electronic accessories at these locations. (via Inhabitat)

And Earth 911 provides a large list of organizations who offer electronic recycling locations in your neighborhood.

Retailers in the city that sell rechargeable batteries have been required since late 2006 to provide recycling drop offs at their stores. (Has anybody seen one?) In this case, a non-profit organization named Call2Recycle actually does the recycling.

Schools, city agencies, businesses and institutions located here are also already required recycle computer equipment.